Hearthstone Season 3 Launches With Rainbow Card Back

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft's second season of Ranked Play is drawing to a close today. It will be followed immediately afterward by the start of Season 3, fresh with a new card back to earn.

Season 2 of Ranked Play allowed players to earn a green card back inspired by the Black Temple. To get the card back, you have to earn Rank 20 by season's end. It's an easy feat to accomplish, because losses from rank 25 to rank 20 don't hurt your progress to the next rank. It should only take a handful of wins in Ranked mode to get to 20.

If you haven't gotten to Rank 20 in Season 2 yet, you've still got a little time. Here's when the season will end in each territory:

Your Rank in Season 2 will determine your starting placement in Season 3. You'll get a bonus star for each rank you achieved. For example, if you managed to get to Legend rank, you'll start off Season 3 at Rank 16. In other words, you'll have earned the next Rank 20 card back for Season 3 without doing a thing.

The new card back for Season 3 is this rainbow collectible. It doesn't seem to have any specific inspiration from World of Warcraft.

The Season 1 and Season 2 card backs won't be available in Season 3. However, you can still try to attain the Fireside Friends and Legend backs. The former is earned by playing local matches. The latter is awarded when you hit Rank 0 for the first time.

Hearthstone's third season will run until June 30th. It could be a very challenging month. Blizzard plans to release the Curse of Naxxramas single-player adventure this summer, complete with new bosses and cards. These cards could severely tip the balance toward one class or another. Blizzard hasn't dated Naxxramas yet, though, so perhaps it'll miss this season.

If you're looking to make some serious progress in Season 3 of Hearthstone, be sure to check out this video guide. It gives you some advice on how to make the long climb from Angry Chicken to Legend.